"We have been nice girls long enough. We’ve made our cholent…we should take to the streets." - Blu Greenberg

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Mary Sues and Sexism in Literature

This is an adapted version of something that I wrote for a class called Gender and Fandom.A Mary Sue is a stock
character found in fan fiction that is an over-idealized version of the author.
The stories she is featured in are usually poorly written and overly
simplistic. The term is a derogatory one, as Mary Sues are universally
denigrated in fan fiction.

In her book Enterprising Women, Camille Bacon-Smith explains that Mary
Sue adheres to standard societal beauty standards by being “tall and slim, with
clear skin and straight teeth;” is highly intelligent and educated, with “degrees
from universities throughout the known universe;” and is resourceful, able
to “save the lives of the crew through
wit." Joan Marie Verba in Boldly Writing boils down the Mary Sue
character to five points: she is young, adored by everyone around her, has
abilities beyond the norm, is awarded extraordinary honors, and dies a widely mourned
tragic or heroic death.

TV Tropes elaborates that although Mary
Sue is universally loved, she has little to no personality. Despite this lack,
every other character goes out of his or her way to serve Mary Sue’s interests;
main canon characters often fall in love with her, regardless of their pre-established
relationships, sexualities, and personalities. Mary Sue is always the main
character of the story. She usually has a dramatic back story, and is consequently
either constantly cheery or depressed. She is set apart from other characters
because of her inherent perfection, and often complains about how difficult it
is to be so “awesome.”

The original Mary Sue character appeared
in Paula Smith’s 1973 Star Trek fan fiction story “A Trekkie’s Tale” in the fanzine
Menagerie 2. In the story, Mary
Sue is a 15-year-old lieutenant who singlehandedly saves the Enterprise; is awarded a Nobel Peace
Prize; wins the hearts of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott;
and dies a tragic death.

Smith says that she did not create the
infallible female stock main character when she wrote Mary Sue, but was
parodying an existing trope. She popularized and demonized Mary Sue,
criticizing fan fictions with main characters she deemed too Mary Sue-like.

Although Smith only gave her a name in
the 1970s, Mary Sue has been part of literature since people started writing. The eponymous character of Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson is a Mary Sue-like
character, even though the book is from 1741. Several characters
from literature written throughout the 1800s and 1900s could fit into the
Mary Sue archetype, including beloved figures like the March sisters from Little Women and Nancy Drew.

Henry Jenkins in Textual poachers explaining that women
write Mary Sues into their stories to personalize the canon and to become part
of the media they consume and obsess over on a regular basis. Others believe that Mary Sue allows women to build alter egos for themselves and connect with the
characters in a more tangible way, and yet others feel that women feel
compelled to write Mary Sues to fill the void of characters like them.

Smith feels that Mary Sue “represents the
teenage girl suddenly finding power.” As evidence, she cites the fact that the
Mary Sue stock character became popular in fan fiction written by women in the
1970s, during the peak of Second Wave Feminism.

Bacon-Smith also points that Mary Sue
rose to infamy in the 1970s. These women who wrote the original Mary Sue fan
fiction had grown up in an era when strict gender roles prevailed;
consequently, many people dismissed their interest in science fiction as
masculine, and accused them of being tomboys. Developing Mary Sue gave these “intelligent
women struggling with their culturally anomalous identities” a chance to create
a character who is “an active agent with the culturally approved traits of
beauty, sacrifice, and self-effacement, which magic recipe wins her the love of
the hero.” Although some of these women produced Mary Sue stories in order to
emulate the character, other writers wrote about Mary Sue to resent and reject her
and what she represents.

Typically, only authors who are women are
accused of writing Mary Sues, and only female characters are decried as Mary
Sues. Young adult author Zoe Marriott has even said that people use the
term “Mary Sue” synonymously with “female character I don’t like.”

Accusing characters of being Mary Sues
can be a form of gatekeeping from well-established authors. It’s the Queen Bee
effect: authors who have made it to the top of the fan fiction world want to be
the only successful ones in the field, so they discourage amateurs from
attempting to write fan fiction.

The Mary Sue accusation is also used by
fans to police women’s writing and denigrate aspiring women writers. There are even
entire online communities dedicated to finding fan fiction with Mary Sues and
ripping apart the plotline and character. Bacon-Smith reports that all of this
gatekeeping and policing has been effective, as many women have avoided writing
female characters out of fear that fans will call them Mary Sues. Although Mary Sue is mocked and dismissed
for being infallible, Captain Kirk is adored despite his own possession of
overly exaggerated positive attributes. This double standard leads Bacon-Smith
to posit that the fan community’s dismissal of Mary Sue is “a self-imposed
sexism – she can’t do that, she’s a girl."

About Me

Prayer for Agunot

Creator of heaven and earth, may it be Your will to free the captive wives of Israel when love and sanctity have fled the home, but their husbands bind them in the tatters of their ketubot. Remove the bitter burden from these agunot and soften the hearts of their misguided captors. Liberate Your faithful daughters from their anguish. Enable them to establish new homes and raise up children in peace.

Grant wisdom to the judges of Israel; teach them to recognize oppression and rule against it. Infuse our rabbis with the courage to use their power for good alone.